Supreme Court Fast Tracks Three Vaccine Mandate Cases For January Hearing – Opinion

The US Supreme Court announced that it would accept expedited appeals of two of Joe Biden’s “vaccine mandate” cases. One of the mandates uses a flimsy Occupational Safety and Health Administration order, we shouldn’t dignify it by calling it a “rule,” that companies with over 100 employees must impose a vaccine mandate. A few dozen individuals were involved in OSHA’s mandate. All of these cases were consolidated by the Sixth Circuit (The Sixth Circuit Delivers another Smackdown to Biden’s Administration on OSHA Mandate).

Second, the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services ordered that all healthcare workers working in hospitals receiving Medicare/Medicaid payments have to be immunized. This mandate has been challenged by Missouri (In The Ongoing Mask Mandate Bătăl, Missouri AG Eric Schmitt Makes a Case for Freedom), and Louisiana. Both the Fifth Circuit and Eighth Circuit injuncted against it being enforced.

Given the manhandling that the OSHA mandate has received just about everywhere it has been heard, it was a little bit of a shock when a Sixth Circuit panel consisting of one Obama judge, one George W. Bush judge, and one Trump judge ruled 2-1 to remove the nationwide injunction and let the OSHA mandate take effect (see Joe Biden Wins Big on His Vaccine Mandate for Businesses).

After the Sixth Circuit sided with the government and lifted the nationwide order, we knew that it was going to be a difficult road ahead. The OSHA mandate came into effect just before it could be properly litigated.

The Supreme Court intervened and accepted to simultaneously take both the OSHA and CMS cases. The Supreme Court ordered that all parties file briefs by December 30, and scheduled oral arguments for January 7.

Unlike state governments, the federal government doesn’t even have a colorable claim to the authority it is asserting via the OSHA or CMS mandates. It simply doesn’t make sense legally or factually. It is also unlikely that the Supreme Court will hear state-level cases. I think the Jacobson vs. Massachusetts precedent, which has a history that makes it look pretty disreputable (see Also, Did You Notice how the same Supreme Court precedent used to rationalize Vaccine Mandates and justify involuntary sterilization?This will be ruled out.

Overall, it is in line with the Texas Heartbeat Law (Supreme Court Humilitates Biden, Refuses Stop Texas Heartbeat Law, Gorsuch and Wise Latina Are a Public Spat), which accepts a case for an expedited court hearing. This is a good sign, and a great news. While the federal government had claimed that it was able to stop evictions without any restrictions, the Supreme Court repelled them (see: The renewed CDC Eviction Moratorium is an unlawful powerplay and fundamentally damages more than just the Rule of Law as well as The Supreme Court Rules the Eviction Moratorium and sends the Biden Administration into further collapse). I’m fairly confident that a majority on the court will either return the injunction pending further action by the Sixth Circuit or simply strike the laws down.